Accounting

VAT Returns · South East

VAT returns in Down Street

VAT returns for businesses in Down Street, prepared from your records and submitted through Making Tax Digital software every quarter for £35 a month. We check the coding, confirm the amount due and file once you approve. The fee is fixed and the same in Down Street as in every other part of England.

from £35/mo · fixed, per month

Next deadlines

  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • VAT return and payment for the quarter that ended last month
  • Tax year ends: last day for pension, ISA and dividend timing decisions

Who this is for

VAT Returns for Down Street

VAT-registered sole traders, partnerships and limited companies in Down Street: trades and construction firms dealing with the domestic reverse charge, retailers and cafes with mixed-rate sales, online sellers with marketplace VAT, consultants on the flat rate scheme, and businesses that have just passed the £90,000 registration threshold and need to register and file for the first time.

What is included

Everything inside the fixed fee

  • Quarterly VAT return prepared from your bookkeeping and reviewed for coding errors before submission
  • Submission through Making Tax Digital-compatible software with HMRC's receipt forwarded to you
  • Scheme review: standard, flat rate, cash accounting or annual accounting, whichever saves you most
  • Partial exemption, reverse charge, EU and import VAT handled where they arise
  • Payment reminder with the exact amount, reference and date before each 7th-of-the-month deadline
  • HMRC VAT correspondence about the returns we filed handled at no extra charge

How it works

VAT Returns from Down Street, step by step

  1. Tell us your situation

    A short message or call about what you do and what needs filing. We ask the questions that determine the right package and nothing more.

  2. Fixed fee in writing

    You receive one price for the work, confirmed by email before anything starts. It does not change if the job takes longer than we expected.

  3. Send records, review the draft

    Records come by WhatsApp or email. We prepare the draft, explain the figures in plain English and answer your questions.

  4. We file, you get the receipts

    Once you approve and the fee is settled, we submit electronically and forward the HMRC or Companies House acknowledgement the same day.

Why IGI

What you get in Down Street

One fixed fee for vat returns in Down Street, agreed in writing before any work starts and never changed part-way through the job, however long it takes us.

Nothing for Down Street is left to the last week. Each deadline relevant to vat returns is tracked from the day you join, with the next four shown on every page we send you.

We serve Down Street remotely by design: records by WhatsApp or email, drafts back for approval, filing electronic. The saving on premises is passed to you in the fee for vat returns.

A named person handles your vat returns from Down Street and knows the file, so you are not re-explaining your business to a different helpdesk each time.

The output for Down Street clients is never just a form. It is the form, a one-page summary of what it says, and a note of the decisions it points to for vat returns.

Approval before filing is a rule, not a courtesy. For vat returns in Down Street, every submission to HMRC or Companies House follows your written go-ahead.

Local facts

About Down Street

Down Street is in South East, England. Income tax in England follows the UK rates: 20% basic to £50,270, 40% higher to £125,140 and 45% additional, with the personal allowance of £12,570 tapered away above £100,000. National Insurance, VAT and Corporation Tax are UK-wide, and Stamp Duty Land Tax applies to property purchases.

Nearby places we also serve for vat returns
PlaceDistanceDirection
Splayne's Green0.9 miW
Fletching1 miW
Horney Common1 miNE
Piltdown1 miS
Maresfield1 miE
Dodd's Hill2 miN
Dodd's Bottom2 miN
Shortbridge2 miS

Worth knowing

Rules that come up in this work

Record keeping

Record keeping is a legal obligation with a penalty of up to £3,000 for failure, but its real value is in making every other filing cheaper and more defensible. Keep invoices, receipts, bank statements, mileage logs and any HMRC correspondence, digitally if you like, for five years after the relevant filing deadline for individuals and six years for companies and VAT.

Allowable expenses

The expenses sole traders most often miss are home working costs, claimed by actual proportion or HMRC's flat rate, the business share of phone and internet, mileage at 45p for the first 10,000 business miles, and training that maintains existing skills. The ones most often claimed wrongly are commuting, entertaining customers and clothes that could be worn outside work.

Crypto records and reporting

HMRC treats cryptoassets as property. Swapping one token for another, spending crypto or gifting it are all disposals for Capital Gains Tax, and staking and lending rewards are income. Gains are computed under pooling rules with same-day and 30-day matching. From 2026 HMRC receives data from exchanges worldwide under the Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, so unreported activity is increasingly visible.

The 60-day property CGT return

Since April 2020 a gain on UK residential property must be reported and the tax paid within 60 days of completion through HMRC's dedicated service, separately from the annual return. Non-residents must report all UK land disposals in the same window whether or not tax is due. Getting the computation right first time matters because the figure is then carried into the Self Assessment.

Dormant companies

Dormancy is a status that is easy to lose. The strict rule is no accounting transactions other than share capital and Companies House fees, which means no bank account activity at all in practice. Fees should be paid personally by the director. A company that traded and has stopped becomes dormant only after its final trading accounts and tax return are filed and HMRC is told.

The trading and property allowances

The first £1,000 of trading income and, separately, the first £1,000 of property income each year is tax free under the trading and property allowances. Below those figures no return is needed for that income. Above them you can deduct the £1,000 allowance instead of actual expenses if that is better, which suits side businesses and single-room lets with few costs.

Employer National Insurance

Since April 2025 employer National Insurance has been 15% on earnings above a £5,000 secondary threshold, a substantial increase for small employers. The Employment Allowance rose to £10,500 at the same time to soften it for the smallest businesses. Directors deciding their own salary weigh this cost against the Corporation Tax deduction a salary provides.

Questions

VAT Returns questions from Down Street

What does the £35 a month fee cover?

Quarterly VAT returns prepared from your own bookkeeping records, reviewed by us for coding errors, submitted through MTD-compatible software and confirmed back to you with HMRC's receipt and the payment details. If we also do your bookkeeping, the combined bundle is £119 a month.

When do I have to register for VAT?

When your taxable turnover in any rolling 12 months exceeds £90,000, or you expect it to exceed £90,000 in the next 30 days alone. You must register within 30 days of the end of the month you crossed the threshold. Voluntary registration below the threshold is possible and sometimes beneficial; we advise either way.

Which VAT scheme should I use?

The standard scheme suits most businesses with significant costs. The flat rate scheme can benefit low-cost service businesses, though the limited-cost trader rate of 16.5% removes most of the advantage. Cash accounting helps with slow-paying customers. We review your figures and recommend one; the £79 registration-plus-advice package includes this.

When are returns and payments due?

One month and seven days after the end of each VAT quarter, for both the return and the payment. A quarter ending 31 March is due by 7 May. Direct debit payments are taken three working days later. We send you the figure and reference at least a week before the date.

What happens if a return is late?

HMRC's points-based system gives one penalty point per late return; at four points (for quarterly filers) each further late return costs £200. Late payment penalties start at 3% of the tax after 15 days, with daily interest from day one. We file on time if we have your records; late-filer rescues are £99 per return.

Can I claim VAT on everything the business buys?

Only on purchases used for making taxable supplies, with a valid VAT invoice. Business entertainment, most cars and anything with private use are restricted or blocked. If you make some exempt supplies, partial exemption rules limit recovery. We check these before each return.

Which deadlines matter most for vat returns?

The next four dates that apply to vat returns are shown at the top of this page, calculated from today. For Down Street clients we diarise every one of them from the day you join and send reminders before each, so the work is done in good time rather than in the last week before a penalty.

How do I get started from Down Street?

Message us on WhatsApp or email with a sentence about your business and what you need. We reply in working hours with any questions and a fixed fee for vat returns. Once you confirm, we tell you exactly which records to send and the work begins. Most Down Street clients are set up within a day.

Let us take the deadlines off your plate in Down Street

Tell us what you need. You get one fixed fee in writing, and nothing is filed until you approve it.

WhatsApp for a fixed quote